He stopped when he got to Matt Horn’s face — closed his eyes and remembered.
He’s back in that British Land Rover, opening his eyes and choking on the smoke billowing from the ruined front section of the vehicle. The two British soldiers who had been there were gone.
Something sticky clogged up his eyes. He wiped at them, looking down at his hands and seeing his own blood there.
He felt panic start to rise in him, patted himself down and felt that everything was intact. His head throbbed from the concussive blast of the explosion. Didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious.
He figured the device must have been a mine triggered by the front tyre of the vehicle on Matt Horn’s side. It was the only explanation why Raines had survived intact.
He looked at Horn. Not so lucky.
Tonk-tonk-tonk
Bullets impacted the armour of the Land Rover.
Raines looked back, saw that the soldiers in the vehicles behind them were out and returning fire, using their own vehicles for cover. Dirt kicked up around them where bullets hit the ground.
Horn had lost most of his right leg and was bleeding heavily from the wound. His right arm hung limp by his side, the sleeve of his uniform in tatters and blood staining what little cloth was left.
His left foot was a mangled mess.
Horn watched Raines, his eyes blinking and breaths coming in short gasps.
Andy Johnson was in shock beside Horn, his eyes wide: staring at the female lieutenant opposite him.
Raines turned to look at her and saw that her helmet had been split in two by a piece of shrapnel. Maybe a part of the vehicle shorn loose by the explosion. The shrapnel had done the same to her head. Raines looked away.
Tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk
Have to get out of here.
Raines got up and went to the rear door. Couldn’t get it open. The armour had warped in the blast preventing the doors from opening. He kicked at them, made a little daylight. Kicked again.
He heard the whoosh of a rocket-propelled grenade, flinched instinctively. The explosion was loud and he saw that it had landed twenty metres in front of the Snatch immediately behind them.
He grabbed his rifle, forced the butt into the gap between the door and the frame of the vehicle and used his weight to lever it. The door resisted and then burst open. Raines staggered forward, almost falling out. Dirt kicked up in the ground and he heard the crackle and fizz of bullets in the air.
Johnson was still staring at the lieutenant so Raines stepped in front of him and grabbed his face with both hands.
‘We need to move, soldier,’ he shouted. ‘Now.’
Johnson looked at Raines. Looked out the open rear door at the soldiers behind them.
He turned back to Raines, nodded and grabbed his rifle.
‘Give me cover fire while I get Horn out of here, okay?’
Raines realised that he was shouting everything at the top of his voice to be heard over the din.
Johnson stepped down out of the Land Rover, turned to go around it to get cover, and started firing.
Raines shuffled back to Horn, grabbed him by his body armour under both arms and heaved him to the back door. When he got there, one of the soldiers from the other vehicles ran up and helped take the weight as Raines pulled Horn free. Raines knew that they were exposed to the enemy now but there was no choice. He couldn’t leave Horn in there.
They managed to get Horn around behind the vehicle and sat him on the road, his blood leaking out rapidly and staining the ground.
Raines pulled his belt free and wrapped it around what was left of Horn’s right thigh in a makeshift tourniquet. Horn’s eyes fluttered and he shouted out in pain. Raines pulled the belt as tight as he could and was pleased to see the flow of blood ease. Still, he knew that they needed a medevac as soon as possible if the boy was to have any chance of surviving.
‘Where’s the support?’ Raines shouted at Johnson as another RPG whooshed above them and exploded in the desert.
‘There’s an Apache on its way,’ Johnson replied, still firing. ‘It’ll torch those fuckers.’
Raines reached into one of the pockets in his trousers, pulled out his morphine needle and stuck it into Horn. He motioned for Johnson to give him his morphine too and gave Horn the second dose. Horn’s face muscles slackened as the drug took effect.
Raines stood, went to where Johnson was standing and joined him in firing at the enemy position.
An Apache gunship swooped overhead and its thirty-millimetre cannon roared. The pilot of the helicopter fired two missiles at the enemy position and sprayed them again with his cannon. Raines stopped firing his weapon and watched in awe at the devastation the Apache wreaked.
A bullet ripped into his combat trousers and went straight through the flesh and muscle of his leg, clipping his shin bone on the way.
Raines fell, more bullets thudding into the dirt around him.
Above, the Apache’s cannon continued to roar.
4
Raines was quiet on the drive back from the compound and his passenger seemed content to watch the scenery pass by.
‘When do you leave?’ Raines asked finally as they passed the first sign for Denver.
The passenger smiled.
‘I know that you don’t like me,’ he said.
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be friends.’
‘We won’t be.’
‘I like it that we are able to define our relationship now. So there are no misunderstandings later.’
Raines glanced sideways at him but said nothing.
‘So you’ll do it?’ Raines asked. ‘I mean, we’re in business.’
‘Yes. We are most definitely in business.’
Part Five:
1
Logan called Irvine while he waited outside Ellie’s school.
‘I’m leaving tomorrow,’ he told her when she answered.
She didn’t say anything for a moment. He realised that it was probably a confusing opening gambit.
‘I mean, I’m flying to Denver with Alex. The plane crash I told you about. Sam is going to take Ellie.’
‘How long will you be away?’
‘I don’t know. Three or four days maybe.’
‘The timing isn’t such a bad thing. I think this new case of mine is going to keep me busy nights anyway.’
‘I’ll come over tonight for a while. After dinner. Say goodbye properly.’
‘I’d like that. I’ll call you when I get in.’
Logan could tell from the look on Ellie’s face when she saw his car and the brief but excitable discussion with her friends that followed that she wasn’t happy to see him there.
Ah, fatherhood.
Ellie opened the rear door, threw her bags in heavily and got into the front passenger seat. She made a show of huffing and sighing while she put the seatbelt on and shifted around in her seat in an overt display of petulance.
Logan tried to ignore her and drove off. She waved at her friends from the car.
After a couple of minutes, she rummaged in the door pocket and took out a CD to put in the stereo.
‘You had plans?’ he asked her eventually.
She turned her head slowly to look at him and said yes.
‘Sorry. There’s some stuff we need to talk about.’
‘Sounds serious.’
‘Depends on your perspective.’
Logan used the controls on the steering wheel to lower the volume of the stereo.
‘I have to go away on business for a few days. Maybe even a week.’
‘When?’
‘Tomorrow.’
She turned back to look out of the windscreen. Logan glanced at her, couldn’t read her expression.
‘I’ve got school.’
‘I know, Ellie. You can’t come with me.’
‘I had kind of worked that out.’
She was trying to be sassy. That was her way. But he could tell from the uncertain edge in her voice that the confidence was just for show.